Introduction to the Indicators Project
The Indicators project is a versatile and user-friendly library designed to provide easy-to-use progress bars and spinners for applications. It's particularly well-suited for developers looking to enhance their user interface by visually representing long-running tasks. Here is an overview of the key aspects of the Indicators project.
Key Features
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Thread-safe Progress Bars and Spinners: Indicators ensure that progress bars and spinners can be safely updated from different threads without causing data corruption or display errors. This is particularly useful in multi-threaded applications where tasks are processed concurrently.
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Header-only Library: This means that the entire functionality of the library is contained in header files, making it easy to integrate into projects without the need for separate compilation steps. Users can simply grab the
include/indicatorsdirectory and include it in their projects. -
Single-header Version Available: For those who prefer a more minimal setup, there's a single-header version available in
single_include/indicators. This can be particularly convenient for quick setup or prototyping. -
Open Source with MIT License: The library is distributed under the MIT License, granting users flexibility to use, modify, and distribute the library with minimal restrictions.
Supported Indicators
The Indicators library provides various types of indicators to cater to different requirements:
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Basic Progress Bar: A simple progress bar to show task progress, customizable with options like width, color, and text styles.
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Indeterminate Progress Bar: Useful when the total progress is unknown. It keeps running to show that a task is in progress until manually stopped.
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Block Progress Bar: Offers a smooth representation using Unicode block elements, ideal for creating visually appealing progress bars.
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Multi Progress: This feature manages multiple progress bars simultaneously, an excellent choice for applications executing multiple tasks in parallel.
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Dynamic Progress: Provides flexibility by allowing dynamic addition of progress bars at runtime, suited for applications where tasks aren't all known upfront.
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Progress Spinner: A minimalist alternative to progress bars, progress spinners show that a task is ongoing through rotating symbols.
Additional Features
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Glyph and Unicode Support: The library supports Unicode, which enables the use of a wide range of characters and symbols in progress displays.
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Time Tracking: Progress indicators can display time elapsed and estimated time remaining, providing users with more context about task duration inspired by the popular Python
tqdmmodule.
Code Samples and Usage
The library comes with extensive examples demonstrating various use cases, from basic progress updates to more complex multi-bar setups. Developers can refer to these samples to understand how to implement indicators in their applications effectively.
Building and Contribution
The project encourages contributions from the open-source community. Details on building samples and contributing are available in the library's documentation and GitHub repository.
Conclusion
The Indicators library is a powerful tool for developers looking to enhance the user experience by providing meaningful visual feedback during long-running tasks. With its emphasis on simplicity, customization, and thread safety, it’s a perfect fit for both simple and complex applications, ensuring users stay informed about the status of ongoing processes.